Dmitri Hvorostovsky graduated from the Krasnoyarsk State Arts Institute under the tutelage of Prof. Iofel. When still a student, he participated in numerous concerts. In 1984, he became soloist of the Krasnoyarsk Theatre of Opera and Ballet. In 1987, he won First Prize at the All-Russia Competition for Singers in Perm.
Hvorostovsky gained international acclaim when he won the Glinka All-Russia Singing Competition in Baku in 1987, the International Competition in Toulouse in 1988, and the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 1989. The singer got engagements with the world’s leading opera houses and started working with prominent conductors and singers including Luciano Pavarotti. In 1988 he made his debut in the West at the Nice Opera, singing the part of Eletsky in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky sang at the world’s major opera houses and concert halls: the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, La Scala in Milan, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Queen’s Hall in Edinburg, Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the Vienna Philharmonic. His gave recitals in Seoul, Oslo, Istanbul, Jerusalem and other cities. Dmitri Hvorostovsky performed with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and others. The singer enjoyed collaboration with many great conductors such as James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Yuri Temirkanov, and Vladimir Spivakov.
Despite his successful career in the West, Dmitri Hvorostovsky stayed in touch with Russia. In 2000, he made his debut as Rigoletto in the co-production of the Savonlinna Opera Festival and the Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow (conductor Evgeny Kolobov).
Dmitri Hvorostovsky was the first opera singer to give a recital with an orchestra and chorus in Red Square, which was broadcast in 25 countries. On May 9, 2005 the State Kremlin Palace hosted his recital concert dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Victory featuring the Choral Academy and the UNESCO World Choir. This concert was followed by the singer’s tour in cities and towns of Russia with the Wartime Songs programme.
In 2006, Dmitri Hvorostovsky started introducing international opera singers to the Russian audience in his cycle Hvorostovsky and Friends, featuring in different years Renée Fleming, Sumi Jo, Sondra Radvanovsky, Jonas Kaufmann, Askar and Ildar Abdrazakovs, Charles Castronovo, Ekaterina Siurina, Marcello Giordani, Elīna Garanča, Ramón Vargas, Barbara Frittoli to name but a few.
As a chamber singer he sought to reveal new music layers from the 17th to the 20th century. In Europe and America Hvorostovski performed compositions that are practically unknown to the western audience: Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses by Michelangelo Buonarroti, Sviridov’s Cast-Off Russia and Petersburg, Russian spiritual music. Sviridov was so impressed by Hvosrotovsky’s rendition of the Cast-Off Russia that he dedicated his next composition, Petersburg to Alexander Blok’s poems, to the singer. Dmitri Hvorostovsky is still considered to be the model interpreter of Sviridov’s compositions.
In 1999, the singer made his film debut in the Don Giovanni Unmasked (a film version of Mozart’s Don Giovanni) by the Rhombus Media. The baritone performed both Don Giovanni and Leporello in the film. In 2006, Hvorostovsky jointly with Rene Fleming acted in the American-Russian music film Prima la Russia created by famous conductor Constantine Orbelian.
The singer’s extensive discography includes recordings of operas (Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Iolanta and The Queen of Spades),Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, Verdi’s La traviata and Don Carlos, Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana to mention but a few),Tchaikovsky’s romances, wartime songs and many others.
In 2014, Dmitri Hvorostovsky gave the recital at the Novaya Opera as a part of the cycle World Opera Stars (the Novaya Opera orchestra, conductor — Constantine Orbelian),where he performed songs of the Russian composers of the 20th century. Later he repeatedly sung with the orchestra in the Kremlin State Palace. He also recorded the CD Wait for me with the Novaya Opera orchestra under the baton of Constantine Orbelian.
Awards and Honours:
- People’s Artist of Russia (1995)
- An Honorary Citizen of Krasnoyarsk (2000)
- An Honorary Citizen the Kemerovo Region (2006)
- A winner of the Compatriot of the Year 2005 Award
- A winner of the Opera News Award for his contribution to developing the art of opera (2012).
